Well After two years of messing with the weber power plates, I have decided to go a different path and ditch them. With the help of Jmark, I have reoutfitted my carb with some new metering blocks. Jmark has given me some recommendations in which to begin my tuning from. Engine is being freshened up right now, so I how to be flogging it on the dyno in a couple of weeks.

Heck I will probably gain some et just going from the heavy weber plates to these more slender metering blocks care of Jmark.

Oh Ken, I don't know if you heard, but Troy finally got kicked off of speedtalk.

I got to admit, I was one of the rowdy ones over there when I was dealing with troy.

From what I understand, he was PMing anyone who had anything negative to say about him, and stating ""If you don't know it, I'm giving you fare notice that EVERYTHING you say and write regarding me is being complied. Cyber stalking and harassment is a prosecutable offense Have a nice day"

He tried to say that to me, but I told him so was fraud.

I guess the site admins finally got tired of him.

You may get a kick out this, he sent me this video trying to demonstrate the performance of his carbs to get a rise out of me. http://youtu.be/QT4mHxaEGrE

Hummm, I guess Maley was right about the guy then cuz he had him pegged as a psycho from the get go. I know it really pissed him (TP) off when I denied him membership here, so much so that he went over on ST and started a bashing post. I let him know that membership here was a privileged, not a right and that I only wanted people here that were interested in helping others, not selling their stuff. I guess he'll find another board to get on so he can continue to market his stuff.

I've always thought that even a blind squirrel will pick up an acorn once in a while so if he sold enough carbs then maybe he got one right along the way. But then again, what runs "good" may not be as good as one that runs better either? I guess it's all "relative", ie, as in compared to what! TPs carb may have worked better than the stock FoMoCo 4 barrel that came on that 67 Cougar.

But weren't you happy with those metering blocks you got from him? At least that was the impression I got from the PMs we traded some time back?

Let me be clear, I like the blocks and how the work and ease of use. Its a pretty neat design. But as shrinker told me, they are not designed for high performance engines and there are other issues inherent with the design.

Regarding Troy, I had to resolve several issues that resulted from his workmanship to get them to run they way the did. When I first ran that carb, it was .5 slow. He sold me a mod that he stated would fix a problem, caused the problem it was meant to fix. I would put money on it, he does no testing of any kind. Something makes sense to him so he does it and sells it. Then he makes all these outrageous claims, He was trying to convince me that my car was going to pick up .5. My expectation from the get go was a .10-.15, got about .08 out of it in back to back testing vs my demon. The claims he makes you can tell he has no real world experience with the high performance market. Its mostly streetcars.

But I don't regret the experience, as I have learned a ton, trying to figure out and resolve issues with the carb.

Maley had told me years ago that those blocks had design flaws in them and if I remember correctly, I passed that info on to you early on so shrinker's opinion on them follows what Maley had already told me.

As you mentioned though, we learn from our (or someone else's) mistakes and some of those cost more than others, ie, I pissed away about $700 last year on an intake swap recommendation that slowed me down and I couldn't get it back. Then I took what was described as "junk" (original intake that I wanted ported to begin with), reworked it myself and got the performance back and then some. In fact, that intake I reworked runs damn near as good as this sheetmetal intake I've got on the engine now and it will wind up back on that engine before years end.

Then he makes all these outrageous claims, He was trying to convince me that my car was going to pick up .5. My expectation from the get go was a .10-.15, got about .08 out of it in back to back testing vs my demon. The claims he makes you can tell he has no real world experience with the high performance market. Its mostly streetcars.

That should be a warning to stay away from somebody selling something. That is such an outrageous claim. No carb will gain that over a basic stock Holley that has only been tuned for best jetting. Don't deal with anybody that has to make those outrageous claims to sell their crap. If it REALLY gained that much ET, he'd have so much business he wouldn't have time to post on any forums.

Carbs, cams, headers, intakes, pistons, rods etc. You just won't make those kind of BIG gains unless something is WAY off from right.

I went into this deal, knowing full what I could potentially be getting because of you and other research I have done, I was just intrigued with them and wanted to try something different.

But I can say, I have saved several people from making that mistake. I had a guy email me, telling me that I saved him from spending $3000 for a 4150 and that was with him sending him his 4150. Many other stories like that. I had another guy send me a carb that Troy did for him, It wouldn't idle. I cut the metering block gasket to connect the third circuit into the metering circuit. Then for all the IAB, there were about a .010 variation between them, then on top of that, he had a powervalve with no pvrcs installed. Alot of the issue I have with him is attention to detail type stuff. My bleeds were all over the place when I got my carb.

Sometime you got to take a step back to take two steps forward.

RICK360, I knew what I was getting, unfortunitely there are alot of people that don't understand what it truely takes to pick up .5.

Isn't it really nice that there's places like this where you can learn to do some of your own stuff? Man, I know I've pissed away more money on "pro" carb builders than I care to think about but it was nice to meet up with Maley and others here so I could learn to do some of this stuff for myself. At least if I screw it up, it doesn't usually cost me anywhere near what it does when someone else screws it up for me! And in the process I lean what works and what doesn't.

Isn't it really nice that there's places like this where you can learn to do some of your own stuff? Man, I know I've pissed away more money on "pro" carb builders than I care to think about but it was nice to meet up with Maley and others here so I could learn to do some of this stuff for myself. At least if I screw it up, it doesn't usually cost me anywhere near what it does when someone else screws it up for me! And in the process I lean what works and what doesn't.

I haven't spent the money on custom carbs, but that last statement made hits it right on the head. I've had so many people ask me why I do everything myself, and I tell them that first off, I enjoy it. Two, that's how I learn. Just like you said, it costs me less to screw something up than to have someone do it for me, and I'm on a pretty tight budget!